In most of the podcast consumer studies we receive, two main measurement types are prioritized: Size of audience, and how those audiences respond to ads. In the just-released The Canadian Podcast Listener (CPL), an annual report produced by Canadian audio research firm Signal Hill Insights, both points are boldly surfaced in the public research summary.
First, over 13 million Canadians listen to podcasts monthly, a year-over-year gain from 11.7 million in the 2023 report.
Second, listeners seem to like podcast ads better than ads in other mediums.
Listening Growth
The fieldwork for this year’s CPL was conducted in August, and was twice as large as previous years. During the eight-year lifetime of the CPL, Canadian listening has grown in all levels of commitment, from “ever listened” to “listen daily.”
Platforms
Rare is the podcast study which doesn’t document audience movement to YouTube. For Canadian listeners, YouTube became the “used most often” listening destination for the first time in 2024. Balancing that trend, both Spotify and Apple Podcasts usage dipped.
“In-app discovery the most common method for discovery of most recent new podcast,” the report asserts. Thirty-two percent of respondents affirmed the truth of that, higher than 22% who find new shows via listening to other podcasts. The study deck makes a splash about this, devoting a slide to tracing how discovery has changed over five years.
Depth and Personal Connection In News Podcasts
In an extraordinarily elegant chart, Signal Hill illustrates survey results about emotional connections for listeners in their podcast listening. In that graph (below), we learn how podcasts compare with other media categories in trustworthiness, convenience, habit-forming, timeliness, depth, and personal connection.
The Francophones Dip
Canada is a bilingual country, and The Canadian Podcast Listener reports that Francophone listening dipped in 2024 — monthly listening down from 28% to 24%, after a three-year rise. The dip wiped out one of those gainful years. That said, he consumption of unique podcasts, episodes, and time spent among this cohort are all upward moving from 2023.
Ad Tolerance and Complaints
Too many ads– that’s one survey result. But, at the same time, more tolerance of them than ads in other media. This is interesting, and a refreshing change from the “consumers love ads” theme in many other presentations.
Below are three timeline responses to questions about ad repetition in podcasts:
Takeaways
Our recommendation is to download the public release of this 2024 Canadian Podcast Listener. It is an annual highlight in the field of podcast consumer research. In the meantime, here are broad, key takeaways:
- Monthly listening is up in 2024
- YouTube surges as primary platform
- Marked shifts in French listening this year
- Advertising opportunities abound, but publishers should proceed with caution
Be aware: the complete report is 120+ pages, a far deeper dive than he 23-page public release which we are reporting here. Subscribe to get it; info available from this email.
Again, the public PDF is HERE.
